The development of the group accounts disclosure system in Japan

The Japanese disclosure system of consolidated statements was introduced in 1977 and extensively revised in 1997. The role of the bureaucracy has been significant in these developments and seems to be part of Japan's closed culture. However, other explanations could also be applied. In particular, although Japanese firms opposed such disclosures on the basis of preparation costs, the Japanese government had to modernize the disclosure system, including consolidation, in order to develop the securities market regardless of an individual company's interests.     

Noise trading and prime and score premiums

This paper documents that a common element drives the time-series variation of the premium pricing of Primes and Scores. I argue that this common element is noise trading. The noise trading model of Delong, Shleifer, Summers and Waldmann (1990) predicts that returns on assets that are predominantly traded by noise traders will be correlated, since the misperceptions of noise traders are cross-sectionally correlated. Consistent with the noise trading hypothesis, changes in the average premium of Primes and Scores, which are predominantly traded by individual investors, are correlated with both changes in average discounts of closed-end funds and small firms returns. These empirical facts provide additional evidence that noise traders can affect security prices.     

Superior firm performance under conditional communication between top hierarchy and the subordinates

The choice of communication protocol in hierarchically structured firms is critical to business success. A new conditional communication structure is proposed where the subordinates are allowed to communicate with the principal only when the unit performs poorly. Under this protocol, the bad manager is not afraid of whistleblowing by a superior subordinate, because by making a good recruitment he ensures that his unit generally performs well. The good manager will also be given a voice when his unit does not perform well to clarify the underlying causes, and thus saves inefficient firing by the principal. Using a game-theoretic analysis, we show that this is a clear improvement over the “chain of command” style management where there is no communication between the top and bottom layers and managers are always fired following bad performance. Conditional communication can thus be adopted by firms to improve the overall profitability.     

The environment in an ‘information society’: A transition stage towards more sustainable development?

Social scientists and futurists have suggested that societal development is advancing to a novel stage, to an ‘information society’. However, the crucial qualifiers of this ‘new’ society are ambiguous. Furthermore, environmental goals have created new challenges for information society studies. This paper examines the interaction and dynamics between the information society and sustainable development, which most often manifest themselves as competing scientific and socio-political discourses. On the one hand, there is the potential for reducing the stress on the environment: the emergence of information technologies and services can lead to a dematerialisation of production and immaterialisation of consumption. On the other hand, there are risks: positive environmental effects might be overcome by the ‘rebound effect’ caused by excessive economic growth. It is concluded that further theoretical and empirical studies are needed in order to examine the complex and contradictory relationship between the information society and environmental issues.     

Competitive strategy in remanufacturing and the impact of take-back laws

This paper examines the impact of take-back laws within a manufacturer/remanufacturer competitive framework. Take-back laws require that firms take responsibility for the collection/disposal costs of their products. We consider two alternative implementations of take-back laws that are distinguished by the degree of control that the manufacturer has on returns sold to the remanufacturer. In one implementation, known as collective WEEE take-back, the manufacturer has no control over returns sold to the remanufacturer. The other implementation, known as individual WEEE take-back, gives complete control to the manufacturer.We develop a general two-period model to investigate questions of interest to policy-makers in government and managers in industry. Our results suggest that, in some settings, enactment of collective WEEE take-back will result in higher manufacturer and remanufacturer profits while simultaneously spurring remanufacturing activity and reducing the tax burden on society. A negative effect is higher consumer prices in the market. In other settings, we find that collective WEEE take-back introduces a structural change to the industry—creating an environment where remanufacturing becomes profitable when it is not profitable without a take-back law. With respect to individual WEEE take-back, we find that the manufacturer often benefits from allowing the remanufacturer to enter the market, though from a government policy-maker perspective, there are clear risks of monopolistic behavior.     

国家助学贷款操作问题与对策

国家助学贷款是党中央、国务院实施科教兴国战略的一项重要决策 ,也是近年来商业银行开展的新兴业务。但是 ,在实施过程中也明显存在一些问题 ,需要采取切实可行的措施 ,尽快解决。否则 ,会影响助学贷款的进一步发展。     

GIS（全封闭式组合电器）安装要求及注意事项

文章就如何掌握GIS（全封闭式组合电器）安装技术进行交流探讨，基于GIS为新一代成套封闭式高压电器设备，针对其技术特点，提出相应安装技术要求及注意事项。     

宇宙万物、万力皆源于基元磁子的内禀“旋转”性原理研究

海宇宙中的任何物质系统从最小到最大都具有直接或间接的"旋转"特性,"旋转"也是宇宙所固有的"基元粒子"单元的唯一内禀属性。在旋转、互绕原理的作用下,充满宇宙的"基元粒子"产生了最原始的"引力"与"斥力"作用,导致了基元粒子即称磁子自身有规律的循环组合,逐级生成了宇宙间的粒子、星体等各层级物质系统,同时四种物理作用力也相伴发生。     

Designing a reverse logistics network for optimal collection, recovery and quality-based product-mix planning

This study proposes an integrated, reverse logistics supply chain planning process with modular product design that produces and markets products at different quality levels. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model formulates the overall planning process required to maximize profit by considering the collection of returned products, the recovery of modules and the proportion of the product mix at different quality levels. This paper proposes the collection of returnables (end-of life, defective, product under warranty) through retail outlets combined with the recovery of modules from the collected products using a network of recovery service providers. The proposed modular product design approach would create a design criterion that provides an improved recovery process at a lower cost. This study uses a total supply chain view that considers the production, transportation and distribution of products to customers, while a numerical problem illustrates the applicability of the models.